Tiny green tennis balls perched on the back of pristine white stilettos. It looks playful, maybe even a little absurd, and yet it refuses to go away. What started as a single red-carpet shoe moment two years ago has now shown up at two different Grand Slams in a row – most recently just days ago, as the 2026 US Open wrapped up in New York. If you assumed it was a one-tournament fluke, the trend has other plans.
How one pair of custom pumps rewrote the courtside dress code
The origin story traces back to April 2024 and the press tour for the film Challengers. Zendaya appeared at a photo call at Hotel Hassler in Rome wearing custom Loewe tennis ball pumps. The shoes followed a classic pump silhouette in white with a sharp pointed toe, but the detail that stopped everyone mid-scroll was on the heel: each stiletto incorporated a vibrant green mini tennis ball, a nod to her role as a tennis player in the sultry sports film.
It was cheeky, it was perfectly on theme, and it lodged itself firmly in the collective fashion memory. Method dressing – the practice of wearing outfits that reference the character or project you are promoting – is nothing new in Hollywood. But Zendaya’s execution was so precise, so visually sticky, that it transcended the press tour entirely. Could a single pair of heels really launch a multi-year trend at the most tradition-bound tournament in tennis?
The answer came faster than anyone expected. Influencer Aki Curtis attended the men’s semifinals at The Championships at Wimbledon in London on July 12, 2024, wearing a DIY pair of Aquazzura tennis ball shoes created by her husband. Curtis explained to FN by email that Zendaya had inspired her husband to transform a minimalist white Aquazzura Nuda sandal into a match-ready design in just under five minutes. The result caught everyone’s eye at the event and proved the concept could travel well beyond a celebrity stylist’s mood board.
From dusty storage shelf to viral sensation
The backstory of Curtis’s shoes adds a satisfying layer. She told FN that before she was invited to Wimbledon, those white heels had been sitting in storage for years, collecting dust. She had been planning to buy a new pair of block heels that could sustain long-hour wear when Zendaya’s custom Loewe tennis ball heels from the Challengers press tour came to mind. What followed was a quick upcycling session and a pair of heels now filled with great memories from London, as Curtis described them.
The shoe moment went properly viral two years later, back in July, when Curtis shared flashback videos on Instagram Reels showing the behind-the-scenes process of making the shoes, along with reactions from fellow spectators at the event. The timing was perfect: Wimbledon 2026 had just kicked off, and the algorithm did the rest. The tennis ball heel stopped being a throwback curiosity and became a live trend with fresh momentum, right as a new edition of the tournament was getting underway.
Fresh faces carried it forward from there. TV personality Maura Higgins showed up on the first day of Wimbledon 2026 at the Evian Mountain of Youth VIP Suite wearing white Flor De Maria Jaimie slingback high heels that her styling team had transformed into tennis-themed shoes. Similarly to Curtis and Zendaya, Higgins wore the shoes with two added tennis balls placed on the pointed-toe pumps’ stiletto heels. Styled by Kris Fe, the reality star paired them with an all-white dress and a white bow in her hair, leaning fully into the Wimbledon palette.
Designer options for those who prefer to skip the craft project
Not everyone reached for the glue gun. Other spectators at the 2026 tournament skipped the DIY process altogether and went for designer heels instead. One attendee was spotted wearing Manolo Blahnik’s white pointed-toe tennis-themed slingbacks, finished with a dainty bow and tiny tennis balls on the vamp. It was a polished, ready-to-wear take on the same idea, and it signaled that the trend had matured enough for luxury houses to formalize it.
What makes this particular movement so appealing is its flexibility. You can invest in a high-end slingback or rescue an old pair of white sandals from the back of your closet and transform them in under five minutes. The common thread is simple: a white heel, a flash of neon green, and a wink at whatever tennis is happening nearby.
Then it happened again, two months later, at the US Open
Wimbledon wrapped up on July 12, and for a trend built around one specific tournament’s dress code, that could easily have been the end of it. Instead, the tennis ball heel resurfaced at the very next Grand Slam. As the 2026 US Open closed out its run at Flushing Meadows this month, style coverage of the tournament’s best-dressed attendees pointed to fashion influencer Franki, who paired a Burberry polo-and-skirt look with pointed navy heels from her own label, Shop Franki – finished, once again, with tennis balls at the back of the heel.
It is a small detail, but it answers the question this story opened with. A single press-tour shoe moment from 2024 has now shown up, independently, at two different Grand Slams two years apart, carried each time by people who were not trying to recreate Zendaya’s look so much as reach for the same idea on their own. For more of what showed up courtside this year, Grazia’s US Open style coverage has the rest of the standout looks from the tournament.
The takeaway worth lacing up
Two years ago, Zendaya wore a pair of playful custom pumps to promote a movie, and nobody could have predicted the look would still be gaining ground two Grand Slams later. What we are seeing now is proof that the most enduring trends often start with one clever, specific detail rather than an entire outfit overhaul. You do not need a stylist or a designer budget – just a white heel, a tennis ball, and about five minutes of creativity. The court, it turns out, is not just for the athletes anymore.
